Monday, May 24, 2010

I try try try to cook something every week for this blog, but sometimes I am only able to cook at home once a week. The rest is all leftovers, dinners out, etc. So, if I try something and it fails.... I'm left with nothing to share. I'm resourceful, though. This last failed experiment left me with some perfectly good pitas, a can of chick peas, and some Greek yogurt. I decided to make a nice, simple salad. Simple as in... not really a recipe. But follow along, this is a great summer dish.

Cut a pita into wedges and toast them in the oven until they are crunchy.

Meanwhile drain the can of chickpeas, and heat them in a sauce pan, flavoring them with chopped garlic, chopped red onion, plenty of curry powder, some crushed red pepper, cumin, ginger... all your favorite curry spices. Add water as needed so they don't dry out... I cooked them for a good 10-15 minutes, making them quite soft.

Serve the chick peas over arugula that's been lightly dressed with olive oil, salt & pepper. Scatter some halved cherry tomatoes around. Put a nice dollop of Greek yogurt on the whole thing, and add the pita chips as croutons. I ate this salad 3 days in a row without tiring of it. I could go for one right now, in fact!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I found some quail eggs at an Asian grocery store, and I had to buy them. So tiny and cute!! I've always wanted to do something with quail eggs. I mean, check out these little toasts that Eric Ripert does, and tell me you are not in love with the adorableness that is quail eggs?!? But what was I gonna do with them? I had them in the fridge for awhile, and was determined to use the tonight.

I seem to be on a pizza kick this week, so I went with that momentum. Ever heard of putting eggs on your pizza? It's not weird... it's normal, and brilliant. Being that I am terrible at planning ahead, I never think to make dough for pizza, and have found that refrigerated dinner roll dough works well for little tiny pizzas in a pinch. Little tiny pizzas? Little tiny eggs? boom.

There is not really a recipe for this, per se, but I will walk you through the process. I stretched and rolled out the refrigerated dinner roll dough balls (frozen works, too... follow directions on thawing and rising and preheating the oven) on a surface coated with some olive oil. Once I had my flat rounds, I spread them with olive oil and grated fresh garlic.

Next I put on some fresh tarragon leaves and shredded Parmesan cheese. Then I took a slice of prosciutto, tore it in half length-wise, and formed it into a circle in the middle of the pizza. The idea is that the prosciutto forms a kind of nest for the egg. Bake this for about 6 minutes, until the crust is firm and starting to brown. Add a quail egg to the center of each pizza (it's helpful to crack each egg into a little bowl first instead of trying to crack the egg onto the pizza) and bake another 5-6 minutes until the egg white is set, but the yolk is still runny.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

I went out for Vietnamese last weekend, one of my favorite all-time cuisines. Spring rolls. I need to make spring rolls more often... that's what I took away from that dinner outing. When I was fresh out of high-school, I worked at a Chinese buffet/take-out place. I worked there because I walked up there so often (I even had a "usual" order... Mongolian beef and crab Rangoon...) that I befriended the owner, and when he was looking for someone to answer phones, clear tables and man the front counter, he trusted me.

It was at this job that I discovered authentic Vietnamese cooking. See, the owner was from Vietnam. What, does that surprise you, since it was a "Chinese" restaurant? Hopefully you understand that what passes as Chinese food at most mainstream places in the U.S. is very very American, and has little to do with Chinese food. In this neighborhood, an authentic Vietnamese place would not have been profitable. So "Chinese" it was. Now, when the owner and his wife and brother cooked meals for themselves, that's when I learned a bit about Vietnamese cooking. Ohhhhh... the lemongrass and pork soups! I still cannot replicate them. One of my favorite lunches was spring rolls. We would all sit at a table, all the fixin's laid out, a bowl of hot water and some dried spring-roll wrappers, and just fill and roll and eat away. It was satisfying, social, health and fun.

I made spring rolls tonight. I was gonna make the usual, pork, shrimp, noodles, beansprouts, cilantro. However, when I was at the Asian grocery store getting a couple ingredients for them, I was thrilled to see that the had fresh shiso leaves. I discovered shiso at my favorite sushi joint... a large green herb leaf, tasting like a cross between basil and mint... Ohhhh how I love shiso. and it's the perfect size to fit inside a spring roll!!

-Mix the marinade ingredients together well. Pour about 1/3 of it into a separate bowl and add the shrimp to that bowl; toss well to coat, refrigerate shrimp. add the pork to the rest of the marinade, and let sit for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, cook the noodles and let them cool.

-Cook the pork in about 1 Tablespoon of oil, marinade and all, until cooked through. set aside and let cool a bit.

-Assemble spring rolls (see pics below for set-up and assembly): Fill a bowl (big enough to fit a spring roll wrapper in flat) with warm water. Submerge a spring roll wrapper in the water for about 10 seconds. Remove and lay it flat on a plate. Place a shiso leaf on top of the wrapper, and place pork, shrimp, noodles and bean sprouts down a line in the center. Fold the sides of the wrapper in, and roll the top towards the bottom, using you thumbs to keep the fillings in place as you roll. This takes lots of practice if you're going for pretty. You can tell from the pictures that I am out of practice.

-For dipping sauce, mix together about equal amounts of vinegar and soy sauce, and add sriracha, sesame seeds and sugar to your liking. And/ or use your favorite peanut sauce.

The shiso adds a fresh, aromatic flavor to the spring roll. They also create a very pretty stained glass-like look as they are visible through the semi-translucent wrapper. and the pork is nice and spicy. The beans sprouts at crunch and coolness. You can either assemble a bunch at a time (but be aware that the wrappers will start to toughen as they dry if left out too long), or have everything out on the tables and let family and friends assemble their own as they go.